Veterans Buried in Fairmount Cemetery Honored by Chatham Kiwanis

On May 27 twelve members of the Kiwanis Club of the Chathams placed flags at the graves of United States of America Military Veterans buried in Fairmount Cemetery in Chatham Borough. Bob Huntington, past president of Kiwanis Club and Navy Veteran, obtained the flags and organized the work. Members walked among the gravesites looking for metal plaques identifying the Veteran and branch of service. When one was found, a flag was placed beside the gravestone. In 1975 The Chatham post 92 of the American Legion erected a Veteran’s Memorial at the base of the flagpole located in the center of the cemetery. The Kiwanis club placement of Memorial flags has been an annual event for several years.

The photo above, taken by Dick Plambeck, shows a flag placed beside the gravestone for a Revolutionary War veteran.

Photo taken by Gary Arnesen shows Kiwanians beside the Fairmount Cemetery Veterans Memorial preparing to place flags beside gravestones of members of the American Armed Forces. Kneeling in the front on the left is Bob Huntington of Chatham and organizer of the event. Kneeling on the right is Herb Ramo. Standing left to right: Melanie Sze, Mal Kitson, Nancy Holt, Jerry Cunningham, Alan Robertson, Dick Plambeck, David Mutchler, Marge Arhens and Monty Montague.

Laura Siclari of Budd Larner Overviews Special Education Law May 25

At the May 25 breakfast meeting at Charlie Brown’s Laura Siclari gave an overview of Special Education Law. The photo shows the speaker with President Rich.

Madison High School Key Club attends May 25 Meeting

The Madison High School Key Club attends May 25 Meeting. Photo shows faculty advisor Peggy Cox on the right with seven Key Club offiicers (L to R): Henry (Points Secretary), Shannon (Vice President), Emily (Secretary), Brenna (President), Caroline (Public Relations), Leo (Treasurer) and Jason (Events Coordinator).

Madison Kiwanis Little League Game May 20, 2010

Kiwanis Little League runner slides into home plate to score in a game against Rotary held at Sonny Vitale Memorial Field in Madison, NJ.  Weather was very nice and many spectators showed up to watch some great baseball played by enthusiastic and well-trained kids. Madison Little League is in good hands.

Kiwanis Ogden Street Spring Cleaning

On May 20, 2010, a bright sunny day, 7 members of the Kiwanis Club of Chatham and Madison turned out to remove litter from the roadway and path around Ogden St. and Summit Ave. The area spruced up is near the Chatham Borough Recycling center next to the railroad tracks. This work is supported by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection Clean Communities Program. Photo by Ron shows L to R John, Melanie, Gary, Herb, Clyde and Sharon.

May 18 Picnic Meeting moved to Chatham United Methodist Church

Bob began the meeting by playing “America” on the piano while 26 Kiwanis members sang “My country tis of thee …”. The May 18 luncheon meeting was supposed to be a picnic held in Stanley Park. Because of cool 50 degree weather and steady rain, Rich decided to change the venue to Rodda Hall in the Chatham United Methodist Church. We confortably enjoyed our meeing and lunch of sandwiches, sodas and coffee inside. After the pledge of allegiance, we also sang “God Bless America”.  Rich thanked Mary Anne and her team for arranging the luncheon and all in attendance applauded loudly.

Rich recognized Erv’s birthday and we sang happy birthday to him. He also recognized guests Stu and Karen. Announcements: Gary reminded all of the May 20 Ogden St. cleanup (it needs our work); Jerry reminded us of the Thursday May 27 Fair Mount Cemetery Memorial Flag Placement (meet at Hillside Ave. entrance). Rich passed around a “’thank-you” note from Melanie. Kiwanis of Morristown and Rotary of Chatham invited all to meetings. Remember, attire is informal until Fall. Estimated income from the Cole Park Yard sale was a net $720. The May Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 19 at 8:00 pm in the Methodist Church.

May 11 Kiwanis Meeting at Broccolini’s - Announcements

The Luncheon meeting was held at Broccolini’s in Madison. The photo shows members Melanie, Betty Anne, Nancy and Mary Anne. Bob introduced guest Stu, who is interested in joining the club. Nancy introduced guest John. Starting at the Stanley Park picnic next week, the dress code for meetings is casual until we go back to more formal attire at the installation dinner.

Mary Anne passed around signup sheets for people to help out at the Stanley Park picnic next Tuesday and the Rotary-Kiwanis picnic on June 15. Gary passed around the signup sheet for May 20, 9:00 am Ogden St. area cleanup as part of NJ Clean Community program. It will only take about an hour to do the work. A map is available and it will be emailed to members. Nancy asked for orders for supermarket gift certificates. Tom asked members to fill out an interclub event form showing names of our members and where the event is held. This is needed to receive credit for attending the event.

Saturday is the Cole Park yard sale. Set-up people have to be there at 7:00 am. Tables will be picked up and delivered Thursday and Friday by Doug and Sam. Alan will assign sellers to table spaces identified using stakes supplied by Dick.

Election of next year’s officers began by reading names of all nominees. The members in attendance elected nominees by voice vote. The list of next year’s officers is shown in the Blog officers’ page.

Dr. Jude M. Pfister: “Not your Father's (or Mother's) Morristown National Historical Park."

On May 11, Dr. Jude M. Pfister (see blog posting for May 8, 2010 just below this one) gave an entertaining, comprehensive overview of the Morristown National Historical Park to the luncheon meeting of Kiwanis held at Broccolini’s restaurant in Madison, NJ. He described many little-known facts regarding the collections and plans for the Park and told interesting stories about the history and objects in the collection. Photo shows Dr. Pfister on left with Kiwanis President Rich Behling.

Improvements to the Park have been made over the years and the work continues. The Ford Mansion (Washington’s Headquarters) is getting a new roof and fire safety sprinkler system – the building will be closed until the work is finished. The museum is open to visitors with three galleries open, the most recent being the Military Gallery. The Park includes four general areas: Morristown, Fort Nonsense, Jockey Hollow and Cross Estate/New Jersey Brigade Encampment Area.

The history started with construction by Jacob Ford, Jr. of the Mansion in 1772. In 1779-80 the Mansion was George Washington’s headquarters while the Army wintered in Jockey Hollow. The Ford family owned the Mansion until 1873 when it was sold at auction by the estate of Henry A. Ford to the Washington Association of New Jersey (WANJ), an organization formed to own and manage the property (the organization still exists). In 1933 the WANJ transferred the property to the National Park Service and the Morristown Park became the first National Historical Park. Jockey Hollow was donated by Lloyd W. Smith and Fort Nonsense by Morristown (with the help of Mayor Clyde Potts). Famous architect John Russell Pope designed the museum and gardens behind the Mansion. Another wing was added to hold the huge collection of historical books and manuscripts contributed by Lloyd Smith.

The Park has an original Gilbert Stuart painting of Washington. In the 1920s the arms and face of a woman started appearing on the portrait. It seems that Stuart used the canvas from a prior painting of the wife of Rufus King, a Federalist from Massachusetts. The image of the woman is bleeding through the image of Washington.

Many interesting images were shown by Dr. Pfister during his talk. There was an active Q and A session. At the end, he described his book and members bought all the copies he brought. Funds from sale of the book go entirely to NPS. The members and all who read this blog are invited to visit the Park and see the many new improvements. Some links for more information:

Morristown: Where America Survived. NJN video available on-line.

Web Site for the Morristown National Historical Park (Be sure to look at the new blogs. Links to the blogs are posted on the Park home page.)

Dr. Jude M. Pfister speaks on Morristown National Historical Park

At the May 11 regular Kiwanis luncheon meeting in Broccolini's Restaurant, David Lloyd will introduce Dr. Jude M. Pfister, Chief of Cultural Resources at the Morristown National Historical Park. He will present a talk, “Not your father's (or Mother's) Morristown National Historical Park." He has written a book, “The Jacob Ford Jr. Mansion: The Storied History of A New Jersey Home”. Come and learn more about the national treasure in Morristown, almost in our back yard. Click here to see the Morristown National Historic Park blog.  Dr. Pfister oversees the museum, archival, and library programs at Morristown.

Nurse Joan Knecht Presented Earthquake “Haiti Reflections - 2010”

Mary introduced our speaker Joan Knecht, a former professor of nursing at the County College of Morris. She made a trip in February, 2010 to Haiti as a volunteer with “Foundation for Peace”, a not-for-profit organization founded in 2002 to work with people in impoverished areas of Dominican Republic, Haiti and Kenya. While a nursing student in Cornell she had Margaret Mead as a teacher and she developed an interest in cultures.

Joan volunteers extensively with several organizations as a surgical nurse. After the earthquake in Haiti, she considered joining several alternative volunteer organizations and then chose to go with “Foundation for Peace”. She payed her own travel expense and carried 100 pounds of urgently needed medical supplies with her on the trip. The team flew into Santo Domingo and went by bus to Jimani Viejo, located in the Dominican Republic near the boarder with Haiti.

Joan had worked for 22 years in ER at Morristown so she was assigned to treat the most critical patients. Joan served injured people in Good Samaritan Hospital, a facility which was actually in the Dominican Republic. She showed us a YouTube video, “Hands for Haiti”, covering activities at the site shortly before she arrived. The remainder of her presentation included stories illustrated with many fine photographs showing the spirit and determination of the seriously injured people. During her stay, she crossed the boarder to visit a refugee camp in Haiti. The team of volunteer nurses and supporting workers did an outstanding job and “Foundation for Peace” deserves thanks and support.

Joan recommended that we read “Mountains beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder to learn more about the work of Dr. Paul Farmer and “Partners in Health” to learn more about helping Haiti.

Photo: At the end of the presentation, President Rich gave our speaker our traditional Kiwanis pen.

May 4 Meeting Announcements

There were quite a few announcements instead of singing at the start of the meeting. Marge circulated a card in memory of Palmer Sze. Rich reported that Joan was home from RIM and doing well.

Jerry reported on Cole Park May Day clean-up. There was a good turn-out by members, MHS Key Club and St. Vincent’s Martyr school. We had a nice time and this was a good project.

Gary reported on our scheduled Thursday May 20, 9 am NJ Clean Communities clean-up of Ogden St. area in Chatham Borough. He passed around a sign-up sheet and map of the clean-up location.

Rich distributed Guidelines for doing the yard sale. Tasks and volunteers are described in these “marching orders”. Thirteen tables are needed for Kiwanians selling items for the club. If members have tables, please bring them to the sale. All members are asked to collect and bring bags to the sale to put items into when customers buy them.

Governor-Elect Marc Litwack congratulated the club on increasing membership by 2 so far this year. He reported that he is closing his business on June 1 after 34 years and has office items for sale at an extremely reasonable price. Nominations floor invited but none was made.

The May 4 scheduled fund raising brain-storming meeting is postponed.

Luncheon Meetings changed to Broccolini's in Madison May 11, June 1 and June 8

Our May 11, June 1 and June 8 luncheon meetings are changed from Brooklake Country Club to Broccolini's Restaurant, 91 Park Avenue in Madison, NJ 07940. Starting time remains 12:10 pm.

Cole Park May Day in Madison – 2010

On May 1, Kiwanis participated in May Day in Madison by sprucing up Cole Park. Cole Park is located on Greenwood Ave. and was given to the Borough of Madison by Howard Grant Cole on July 27, 1918 in loving memory of his wife, Louise Cole. Early in the morning on Saturday, 11 Kiwanis members, four Madison High School Key Club members and about 15 volunteers from St. Vincent the Martyr School (Girl Scouts and others) removed weeds from around bushes and trees – then distribute a huge pile of mulch to all the garden sites. Everyone had a lot of fun, even though temperature was over 80 when we finished, about 10:30am.